How would a Noynoy presidency tackle Mindanao? I was able to field this question directly to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino during an early morning press conference last Friday (February 5) at a restaurant in Davao City. His mother, the late former President Corazon C.Aquino, was the one who restarted the peace initiatives in the island, bringing back Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chair Nur Misuari from exile in Saudi Arabia and recognizing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as “a partner in achieving peace in Mindanao.” Her successor, Fidel V. Ramos, built on these and forged a peace agreement with the MNLF, but the succeeding presidents apparently made it their policy to engage the MILF in “all-out war.” Which way would Noynoy go?
He began by pointing out that the Liberal Party (LP), of which he is standard bearer, had objected to the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) that the administration and the MILF had signed in 2008. “It was not inclusive and transparent,” he said. “Mindanao is composed not just of the government and the MILF.” There are also the indigenous peoples and the general population, neither of which, he said, were consulted when the MOA-AD was being crafted. “There are four sides in Mindanao, why were only two participating? It was like the government and the MILF came up with an agreement between themselves and then expected the other two groups to simply accept it,” Aquino said.
So if he becomes President, Aquino said, he will continue with the peace negotiations but in a more transparent and all-inclusive way. Nothing will be signed unless it has gone through a thorough consultation with everyone concerned — an admittedly tough job but one that is necessary nonetheless. Only such a process can lead to lasting peace in Mindanao, he said.
And once there is peace, Aquino said, “then we can work on the economy… Once peace is achieved, then we can go full blast.” He said among the first things that need to be tackled is the power supply in the island, which currently is at an almost one-is-to-one ratio; that is, the power supply is just about equal to the demand. This means that there is not only no room to grow, there will soon be a power crisis as the demand outgrows the supply.
He also said the transport system needs to be overhauled — but quickly added that a railway system may not be the best for Mindanao. There is, he said, a minimum distance in which such a system can be feasible, and so while trains are what many Mindanaoans have been clamoring for, a full study must first be conducted before anything of that magnitude is undertaken. Meanwhile, Mindanaoans must be open to the possibility that the best transport system could still be trucks on highways. The point is to set up a system that would allow the abundance of Mindanao to be transported from farm to market.
Aquino also noted that many local government units in Mindanao are non-performing, that is, the supposed leaders are not doing their job for the people who elected them into office and who pay their salaries through their hard-earned taxes. For these LGUs, he wants a cut in internal revenue allotment (IRA); LGUs that do their job, on the other hand, would get the full 40 percent IRA to allow them to do more projects. A Noynoy presidency would thus be a “meritocracy” in which those that perform well are rewarded while those that don’t will have their allotments slashed. (“If they cannot do what they should do, then we should reduce their resources,” Aquino would say three days later during the Inquirer debate held last Monday).
While he did not explicitly say so, he probably made the last remark in reference to Maguindanao, an arguably non-performing government that was nonetheless able to get a lot of funds from Malacañang allegedly because the Ampatuan clan was close to the President. Aquino said that would no longer be the case if he wins: it would be the people who will get the benefits from government. “At the end of the day,” he said, “my government will be one of consultation. We will ask the people what they need and what government can do to help them.”
Random Posts:
Unity among christians-muslims is the buttom line wherein the mindanaons have started which is indeed a difficult thing to attend but it can happen and we can really make it happen through prayers by the POWER OF LOVE of the people and for the people…SO BE IT…
wag kang manira ng iba ng di ka ma siraan
Wala ng gagaling pa kay NOY
MABUHAY PO KAYO…
before, i was for noynoy, but after analyzing his infomercials, answers in the fora, answers in tv interviews, and most of all, after realizing that he doesn’t have a clear platform aside from bashing the arroyo government and asserting that he is saintly, i’ve decided to not support him… thanks that my relatives followed me too… Hindi ako magnanakaw is a nonsense! because when he has done nothing as a lawmaker, it is also a corruption… we paid him to represent us yet he just wasted our money… Ninoy is not Noynoy and not cory either… He is just a plane NOynoy… he had not proven himself yet..